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kennyt18
Feb 7th, 2007, 09:50 PM
I have an old Compaq laptop and the HD failed on it so I had to replace it. This laptop is about five years old so I have no idea where I put the restore CDs. Anyways, I have a legitimate Windows XP Professional COA sticker on the bottom of the laptop and I have a legitimate Windows XP Professional OEM CD that I purchased with my whitebox PC.

So I go through the process of reinstalling XP Pro but once it gets to the screen asking me for the ProductKey, I enter it correctly (I tried several times) and it says that my ProductKey is invalid.

I did some research online and Microsoft says something about ProductIDs and ProductKeys. I have no idea what this is all about.

Does anyone have a solution?
aZnDeViLbOi
Feb 7th, 2007, 10:08 PM
wow... dun enter the number, enter the one with number and letters...
ShadowVlican
Feb 7th, 2007, 10:14 PM
home/professional/corporate

they all have different keys
rabbit
Feb 8th, 2007, 04:41 AM
Maybe it's because key and CD don't match as far as original/SP1/SP2. Don't know if that makes a difference.
Cyber6
Feb 8th, 2007, 07:16 AM
Maybe it's because key and CD don't match as far as original/SP1/SP2. Don't know if that makes a difference.

Yes, it does make a difference. The keys between different versions of OEM (original/SP1/SP2) are all different. If the OEM cd's are from different years chances are the compaq cd had SP1 and the other had SP2.


C.